


Aurora Borealis

by brumalbreeze



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-25 16:47:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2629061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brumalbreeze/pseuds/brumalbreeze
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a quiet Saturday, and most people were either gone from the dorms or relaxing outdoors. The hallways were mostly empty, except for the occasional student who walked by. Behind one of the classroom doors, lights flickered and glowed but no one was around to notice.</p><p>Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and the sound of scraping chairs shrieked through the silence. With a tremendous slam, the heavy door opened, and two very disheveled-looking students burst out from a cloud of thick, suffocating smoke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aurora Borealis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magicianprince](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicianprince/gifts).



> This is my part of a fic trade with [sugawarakoushi](http://www.sugawarakoushi.tumblr.com), who wanted something a little more _magical_ for these two.
> 
> (My art/fic trades are closed, but my commissions are open! If you would like to have me write you a fic, [please see here](http://algidwind.tumblr.com/commissions)!)
> 
> Also on [Tumblr](http://algidwind.tumblr.com/post/102828299813/aurora-borealis-rei-nagisa).

It was a quiet Saturday, and most people were either gone from the dorms or relaxing outdoors. The hallways were mostly empty, except for the occasional student who walked by. Behind one of the classroom doors, lights flickered and glowed but no one was around to notice.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and the sound of scraping chairs shrieked through the silence. With a tremendous slam, the heavy door opened, and two very disheveled-looking students burst out from a cloud of thick, suffocating smoke.

The taller of the two gasped violently as he waved his hand around his face while the shorter laughed between coughs and braced his hands on his knees.

“How!” the taller boy rasped out angrily, “ _How_ did you manage to make that marble _explode_? You were supposed to change it to a die! No explosions were supposed to happen!”

His friend was still wheezing in laughter and stammered out, “I don’t know, but holy crap, that was _hilarious_! Hold on, hold on, I gotta take a picture of this for Gou-chan.”

“Nagisa-kun!” the taller boy scolded while he watched the blond dig through his pockets for his cellphone. He furrowed his eyebrows and squinted at the hairline crack which ran down one of his glasses frames. With a frown, he took them off and tapped them twice with his wand. The crack melted away seamlessly.

Meanwhile, Nagisa had ducked back into the smoldering classroom and snapped several pictures of the wreckage. He tapped out a quick message and sent it out gleefully. “Hey, Rei-chan, do you think I should upload this online?” he asked while holding his screen toward him.

“No!” Rei exploded, barely stopping himself from stomping his foot petulantly. “Are you insane? We’d get in so much trouble if the teachers found out! We have to clean this up right away,” he said heatedly. Already, he was rolling up his sleeves and walking back into the room.

“Aw, Rei-chan! You’re no fun!” Nagisa complained, but he still went after him.

“Honestly,” the taller boy said indignantly as he began pulling desks back into their rightful positions.

“Can’t we just zap them back in place?” the shorter boy asked as he took out his wand from his pocket. He began to wave it around, but Rei crossed the room in four wide strides and grabbed his wrist firmly.

“No!” he said. “Knowing you, you’ll probably blow them up!”

Nagisa frowned at his friend. “It’s just a moving spell; it’s not like I’ve never done one before!”

Rei glared at him until Nagisa deflated and sighed.

“Fiiine,” the blond said, shrugging his shoulders. “We’ll do it the good old-fashioned way.”

It took them a few minutes to rearrange the furniture and another handful to scrub off the burn marks on the teacher’s desk, but soon, everything was back to normal. Rei had opened the windows to air out the smell which lingered in the air. A cool breeze and the sound of conversing students reached them softly.

“It’s just a simple transfiguration spell; you can’t possibly keep failing at it,” Rei said firmly as he put a small, red marble on the large table in front of him. He glanced up at Nagisa, who was sitting on top of a desk, swinging his legs back and forth. “Come now, try again.”

With a hop, the shorter boy got off the desk and shuffled next to Rei. He quirked his mouth to one side as he took out his wand again and stared at the shiny glass ball.

“Why don’t we try something more basic? Instead of changing the shape of it, just alter its color a little. Like this.”

Rei touched the tip of his wand upon the surface of the marble. He pulled his wand up, flourished it in a series of tight figure-eights and then swept it off to the side. The marble rolled slightly, as if drawn by Rei’s action, and they both watched as the red in the ball drained away, leaving it a sharp and brilliant pink.

Immediately, Nagisa plucked the shining sphere from the table and held it up to his eye. “Wow,” he said in an awe-struck voice. “This is beautiful!” He squinted and peered through its surface gleefully. Nagisa lowered the marble and stared at Rei with sparkling eyes. “You’re so cool, Rei-chan!”

Rei coughed and ignored the prickling heat that rose to his neck and cheeks. “It was merely a simple charm. We learned it back in the second week of school.”

“Yeah, but,” Nagisa said, now rolling the ball in his palms, “I can never get a color as clear and pretty as this.”

The taller boy fixed his glasses and tried not to stammer too much. “All it takes is some serious practice… and a bit of inspiration.”

The blond spun around with the marble to his eye as he examined the room through its distorted volume. “Inspiration?”

“Yes. Sometimes it’s easier to change something if you have a good reference in mind that you are inspired by.”

“I’unno about that, but I guess I could try.” Nagisa squeezed the marble in his hand and shoved it into his pocket. “Anyway, I’m keeping this one, so take out another marble, Rei-chan!”

Rei sighed resignedly and pulled a new marble out. This one was jet-black and shone like obsidian.

“For now, just try making it clear,” Rei instructed as he steadied it with a finger.

“Okay!” Nagisa stuck his tongue out as he tapped his wand to the ball with great concentration.

From outside the door, a muted explosion could be heard followed by a very indignant cry of, “Nagisa-kun!” and hysterical laughter.

 

* * *

 

The door squeaked as Rei opened it. His roommate looked up from his laptop.

“Welcome back, Rei-kun.” There was a moment in which the silver-haired boy wrinkled his nose. Delicately, he said, “You smell a little, um, singed.”

With a world-weary sigh, Rei walked into their room. “I’m back. And yes, I was with Nagisa-kun this afternoon, helping him with his charms and transfiguration spells.” He walked over to his bed and sat on the edge of it.

His roommate smiled helplessly. “I’m guessing it didn’t go too well?”

He smiled sardonically. “Considering the fact that he made two marbles explode, that is a very accurate guess, Aiichirou-kun.”

The shorter boy pushed back from his desk. “Why don’t you see if Rin-senpai might be able to help?”

Rei shook his head. “No, this is for a group project, so I don’t want to bother anyone else for it. Besides, I’m sure Nagisa-kun can do it. He just needs to be more serious about the whole thing.”

“Oh, is it for a test?”

“Yes. We’re reviewing everything we’ve learned thus far, which honestly isn’t very much, but Nagisa-kun’s been struggling a bit.”

Aiichirou hummed in understanding. “I see. Well, since you’re helping him out, I’m sure it’ll be alright.”

Rei smiled. “Thanks.”

 

* * *

 

“Okay, okay, check it out. I practiced last night, so now I can do… _this_!”

He pulled out an orange marble, slammed it into the table, and waved his wand around. There was a very small, very contained explosion of smoke and sparks, and then the marble turned a pretty purple hue.

“... What was with the fireworks?” Rei asked as he warily picked up the ball to inspect.

“I’unno. It keeps happening, and I can’t get it to stop, but at least it didn’t blow up on us again, right?” He beamed proudly.

Rei rolled the marble in his fingers. “Granted,” he said. “The color is very nice too.”

“Thanks! I based it off the color of your eyes!”

The marble slipped and Rei scrambled to catch it. His palms suddenly became very warm and sweaty. Nagisa went on happily.

“You said that it works better if we worked with some inspiration, so that’s what I did! It helped lots!”

“I’m... glad that my advice was helpful,” he said stiffly. Rei cleared his throat. “Since you’ve more or less gotten that down, we can move back onto transfiguration. We’ll do the same thing as yesterday, so try changing the marble into a die.” Softly, he set the purple orb onto the table.

Nagisa poked the marble so it rolled back toward Rei. “You keep this one, since I stole yours yesterday. And I can practice on this!” He pulled out another glass ball from his pockets and grinned.

Rei was at a loss for words, but he quickly recovered and retrieved the marble. He took care to put it in a separate pocket from his other things. “Right. Now, just remember that it’s easier if you imagine the shape of the item you want to transfigure this marble to. Like so.”

He took in a breath, swept his wand down and flicked it up gracefully while exhaling. The marble quivered and settled back on the table as a white die. Rei picked it up to examine the sides to make sure the markings were correct. “And there we have it. Just remember to keep your wrist loose, like you’re a conductor for a symphony.” He swished his wand again in demonstration. Then, he transfigured the die back into a marble.

“Okay,” he said determinedly. Nagisa dipped the tip of his wand down and flicked it back up fluidly, his breath tight but wrist loose.

There was a puff of harmless smoke, and the marble fell back down uncertainly on the table. It was definitely a cube, but it was still shiny and clear.

“Hmmm,” Rei said critically, picking it up from the table and looking at it. “You only altered the shape of the marble, not the actual properties of it. Remember that you’ll have to change the glass into plastic as well. And there was that smoke again....”

“I know!” Nagisa said. “I don’t even know why that happens every time. I swear I’m not doing it on purpose.” He sighed dramatically and his shoulders slumped.

“No matter,” Rei said, easily turning the cube back into a sphere. “Give it another shot.”

The golden-haired boy stared at him. “It’s not fair how good you are at this stuff!”

Rei started, wand still hovering above the sphere. “What... What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s like you just do those spells like they’re nothing, but all I can do is make things blow up and this.” Nagisa swirled his wand in the air in delicate curls, and sparkles and bubbles of light came from the tip of it. When the bubbles burst, soft and hazy light hung in the air for a second before dissipating.

The taller boy stared with an open mouth as Nagisa casually summoned light streamers and distortions from nothing. “Incredible,” he breathed out in awe. “Absolutely astounding….”

Hearing his words made Nagisa flush darkly. His spells stuttered to a stop, although the remaining tendrils floated in the air and swirled about lazily. The entire time, Rei watched them with unblinking eyes.

“You simply don’t understand, Nagisa-kun. This is amazing. The clarity of their hues and delicate edges simply leave no room for complaint. It’s stunning how precisely you can control them, from their color to their form….” Rei reached up softly with a hand but stopped before he touched the last wisp of smoky light as it faded away.

“Y-You’re the one who always aces our tests, Rei-chan. Do you really think I’m the one you should be praising here?” he laughed self-consciously.

Rei shook his head. “With enough studying, anyone can pass those. But what you’re doing is different. Light manipulation isn’t something that one can just ‘do’ through sheer studying. It requires a huge amount of first-hand experience and talent to do correctly. One needs imagination and true instinct to pull it off properly. And you can. You’ve already gotten it down perfectly. I would never be able to do that so flawlessly.” He couldn’t help it, but his last words carried an edge of regretful bitterness, and he had to avert his eyes from his friend. Rei sighed. “It’s just as I thought. We’ll never be able to complete this project beautifully when my spells are so sub-par compared to yours….”

Immediately, Nagisa leaned closer to Rei. “That’s not true! I know you can to do it!  And we’ll _definitely_ have the most beautiful presentation out of the whole class! Maybe I know how to do things instinctively or whatever, but I hate studying and am really bad at it! Not you though, Rei-chan. You always do your best, and I think that’s super admirable! You’re the hardest worker I know!” He stopped, his breath short from having said so much in a rush. Embarrassment suddenly took over him again, and he backed up. “You think _I’m_ incredible, but I think the same of you too….”

Both of them stood in shy silence, not exactly sure what just transpired.

Finally, Rei cleared his throat and said, “Thank you….”

Nagisa smiled at him and nodded.

“We should... continue practicing before it gets too late,” the taller boy said while he fixed his glasses. “You almost got it last time, so just concentrate a little more, and I’m sure you’ll be able to do it.”

“Okay.” The shorter boy squared his shoulders and breathed in deeply. The tip of his wand went down and up in quick succession. The marble shuddered, let out a puff of smoke, and dropped. It landed as a plastic die.

For a moment, the two of them held their breaths, and then they beamed at each other. Nagisa started jumping in place. “I did it!” he squealed gleefully. “I did it! I did it, I did it!”

Rei picked up the die and turned it in his hands. “You certainly did! This is a perfect die. You’ve changed it from glass to plastic, and all of the markings are—” He stopped mid-sentence as he reached the last side of the cube.

“The markings are what, Rei-chan?” Nagisa asked as he stopped bouncing around.  His breathing was a little fast. Quickly, he glanced into Rei’s open palm, and his breath stopped. Nagisa’s face went completely red.

Silently, Rei looked between the die in and his friend. His mouth opened and closed several times until he finally managed to croak out, “Nagisa-kun?”

The blond ducked his head and shrank in on himself shyly.

He read the words on the die again.

_I like you._

Rei felt his face and ears burn as the meaning of the words sank in, and he curled his digits around the cube tightly. His voice refused to come out.

In a panicked response to his silence, Nagisa started to babble. “I didn’t think that was actually going to happen, since I was so concentrated on just making the marble change, but I think I kind of messed up halfway through the spell and it just _kind of did_ and—”

Something squirmed pleasantly in Rei’s chest, and he suddenly found himself leaning down without consciously thinking about it. His shadow prompted the shorter boy to look up. Their faces were a breath apart, and Rei paused long enough for Nagisa to move away if he wanted to. He didn’t, and Rei pressed forward.

For a long, suspended moment, neither of them moved. They could feel the heat coming off each other’s faces, but the softness of their lips was much more distracting. Rei clumsily brushed his free hand over the back of Nagisa’s clenched fist, and they drew apart.

“Rei-chan?” Nagisa asked, sounding just as incredulous and blown-away as Rei was seconds prior.

More in shock than anything, Rei dazedly said, “I like you too.”

Suddenly, Nagisa squealed in delight and threw himself at Rei enthusiastically. Rei laughed in relief and unrestrained happiness as he wrapped his arms around Nagisa and marveled at how their bodies fit with each other perfectly.

 

* * *

 

Rei and Nagisa stood nervously in front of the class. Two rows of white, cylindrical marshmallows were lined up on the teacher’s desk. Professor Amakata nodded at them to start.

Rei was first. He carefully waved his wand over the sweets. One side on the marshmallows turned completely black, effectively bisecting them and creating an interesting contrast. He let out a loose sigh.

Next, Nagisa tapped on the edge of the desk where the first line of black-and-white marshmallows stood. His eyebrow furrowed and, in the next second, the soft cylinders burst into a tiny cloud of smoke, wiggled, and began waddling around.

The girls in the class were the first to react, softly crying out and whispering, “They’re _penguins_!” and “How cute!” to each other.

Nagisa smiled proudly as he transformed and animated the second row of marshmallows.

The marshmallow penguins wandered around the table, occasionally bumping into each other and prodding each other curiously with their soft beaks. The two of them let the little creatures play for a while before Rei raised his wand again.

This time, Rei rolled his wrist and made large, controlled sweeps with his hand. On the table, the penguins began to flap their wings and slowly lift off from the wooden surface. There was more excited murmuring when the penguins transformed into multicolored butterflies and flittered above everyone’s heads.

When the last penguin took flight, Nagisa lifted his arms and drew tight circles with his wand carefully. The butterflies closest to him were the first to erupt into a cascade of glittering lights that looked like flakes of snow. Bubbles of light floated down and burst when they made contact with outstretched fingers or wands. Fox fire and swirls of color floated in the air. Soon, the entire room sparkled and shimmered, and everyone made noises of awed appreciation. Giggles and enthusiastic chatter filled the room as their classmates began to reach up to touch the floating particles of pure magic. The glow of cellphone screens joined the soft lights as students began to record the scene.

“Excellent work!” Professor Amakata said, clapping her hands together. “Excellent work, indeed! You two work _very_ well together!” she said with a smile.

Rei and Nagisa exchanged pleased looks with each other, their faces flushed and illuminated by the lingering lights. Nagisa discreetly hooked his pinkie with Rei’s.

“I think we already know _that_ though, don’t we, Rei-chan?” he asked softly.

Rei squeezed his finger around Nagisa’s and smiled warmly as his heart fluttered.


End file.
